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Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a global technology leader producing software, hardware, and cloud services including Windows, Office 365, Azure cloud platform, Xbox gaming, and Surface devices. Industry: Software & Cloud Computing
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605 open roles
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Listed pay typically runs
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As a Principal Software Engineering Manager, you will lead and grow an AI engineering pod by hiring, coaching, and developing a team of Applied AI Engineers. You will own the end-to-end lifecycle for agentic AI services, managing everything from specification to deployment including LLM orchestration, multi-agent workflows, RAG pipelines, and evaluation systems. Your daily work involves setting technical standards for C# and Python development using TDD, CI/CD, and robust observability. You will build evaluation frameworks with golden datasets and judge agents to ensure safety and performance. The role requires expertise in Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, and agent security patterns like prompt injection defense. You will translate customer support signals into engineering priorities while ensuring responsible AI practices and PII protection are integrated into the architecture of production-ready autonomous systems.
What does a Software Engineering Manager earn?
Median $223750 from 105 postings across 39 companies.
Hire, coach, and develop a team of Applied AI Engineers to build and lead the AI engineering pod.
Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of production AI agents including LLM orchestration, RAG pipelines, and evaluation systems.
Define technical standards for architecture, code quality, deployment practices, and observability for the AI engineering pod.
Build and maintain evaluation frameworks using rubrics and golden datasets to validate agent correctness and safety.
Ensure production health by managing incident response, root cause analysis, and performance monitoring for agent systems.
Partner with product and platform teams to translate customer demand into technical roadmaps and engineering priorities.
Drive measurable business impact by tracking KPIs such as case volume reduction and automation accuracy.
Embed responsible AI practices, PII protection, and audit trails into all agent architectures.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's Degree and 6+ years experience in low-code development, technical program management, data analysis, or product development (or equivalent).
Master's degree in Computer Science, AI, or a related field.
8+ years in software engineering or applied AI roles with at least 3 years of experience managing technical teams.
Experience building and shipping multi-agent orchestration systems or agentic AI services in production.
Experience with AI evaluation frameworks including rubrics, golden datasets, and judge agents.
Experience with Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, or similar enterprise AI platforms.
Familiarity with agent security patterns such as prompt injection defense and tool access controls.
Background in customer support engineering, supportability, or customer experience platforms (preferred).
Azure
AI
Microservices
React
Power Platform
C#
Python
JavaScript
C++
SQL
Cosmos DB
Azure Synapse
NoSQL
GitHub Copilot
Copilot Studio
Azure AI Foundry
AKS
DevOps
Azure
Microsoft Fabric
SQL
PostgreSQL
Cosmos DB
Data Factory
Synapse Analytics
Service Bus
Event Grid
Power BI
Python
C#
Java
C++
JavaScript
Scalability
AI